Over the coming months will we be delving into the history of rugby in Yorkshire thanks to Yorkshire RFU Archivist Richard Lowther.
As our guest blogger, Richard will take you on a trip down memory lane each month as he delves into the history of the growth of the game in the County. From its very origins, to famous County rivalries to the people behind it all, you’ll learn what makes Yorkshire RFU so vibrant and diverse.
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Have courage and run straight!
“Have courage and run straight”. Have you ever considered where Yorkshire RFU’s motto, ‘Fortiter et recte’, came from? In the early 1920s, Yorkshire RFU approached Walter Robinson, the headmaster of…
A History of Yorkshire Cup: Part 3 – Between the Wars
Bob Oakes, Yorkshire's legendary secretary, worked tirelessly to restart the game across the County after the carnage of the First World War. Twenty-five clubs were stirred into life by the…
A History of Yorkshire Cup: Part 2 – From schism to War
Yorkshire's membership fell from a high of 150 in 1892 to a mere 14 ten years later as nearly every Cup winner up to the turn of the century formed…
A History of Yorkshire Cup: Part 1 – From Start to schism
By 1874, representatives of the Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds Athletic and York clubs were meeting as an informal committee to organise rugby affairs across Yorkshire's broad acres. From that small…
A White Rose in a Red Hand: Yorkshire fixtures against Ulster
Outside of the other five counties of the North – Cheshire, Cumbria, Durham, Lancashire and Northumberland, Yorkshire’s most regular opponents have been Ulster. The first encounter took place at Wakefield…
An unlikely Yorkshireman: Douglas Bader
Douglas Robert Steuart Bader was born in St John's Wood, London on 21st February 1910. He was the son of Frederick Roberts and Jessie Bader. When Douglas was a few…
Eddie Myers – Yorkshire’s Rugby Genius
I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that Edward ‘Eddie’ Myers was the best player Yorkshire produced after the schism of 1895, coincidentally the year of his birth. Yorkshire…
‘Bob’ Oakes – Grand Master of Yorkshire Rugby
When Mr and Mrs Oakes named their second-born son, they may have been prescient in giving him the initials of the sport in which he was to play a larger…
Yorkshire Wartime Cup 1940
The Yorkshire Wartime Cup was played for only once. Travel restrictions and petrol rationing plus many Yorkshire clubs closing down during the 1939-40 season, mainly through a shortage of players,…
All Black for Yorkshire as tourists triumph – December 1905
The visit of a New Zealand team in 1905 was the first major international tour since the New Zealand Natives toured in 1888/89. A Canadian side had toured the British…
Springboks leap over Yorkshire – October 1906
A year after the successful tour by the All Blacks, South Africa followed, playing 29 games between September 1906 and January 1907. This included test matches against all the home…
Wallabies catch Yorkshire on the hop – September 1908
When Australia arrived in September 1908, they were the last of the major Southern Hemisphere teams to tour the British Isles. They had played two games in Australia en route…
Leeds Chirons RUFC
Leeds Chirons existed from 1930 until 1988. Prior to 1930 the club was called Leeds Education Office Sports Club, and for two seasons after 1988 it became known as Oakwood…
Yorkshire Rugby Union in World War Two
The declaration of war, when it came at 11.00 am on Sunday 3rd September 1939, was of course hardly unexpected. The preparations for war had accelerated over the previous two…
First to Fifty: Jack Toothill
John Thomas (Jack) Toothill was the first Yorkshire player to play fifty times for the county appearing between 1888 and 1895. Reverend Marshall in ‘Football – the Rugby game’ explained,…
Fred Bonsor: The first Yorkshire player to captain England
It is a paradox that the first Yorkshire player to captain England was born in France, to a father also born across the English Channel, but who was a British…
Dicky Lockwood: Yorkshire’s first Superstar
Richard Evison Lockwood wasn’t the first Yorkshire player to play for England but he was the first rugby ‘superstar’ to emanate from the broad acres. Dicky, as he was known,…
Who is a ‘YORKSHIREMAN’?
Yorkshire rugby union has never followed in the footsteps of its cricketing counterpart 'birth right' rule, where only cricketers born in the Broadacres qualified to play for the county -…
Yorkshire v Lancashire – Pre schism
1878 saw the first 15 a-side game between the two counties, although due to injuries both teams were reduced to 14 players for most of the match. Between 14-16,000 spectators…
Yorkshire versus the Rest of England
In 1888/89 the RFU officially recognised the title of County Champion. The manner of deciding the winners was down to a committee of the RFU who simply chose the team…
Yorkshire’s first International opponents: New Zealand Natives
During the 1888/89 season the ‘New Zealand Natives representative football team’ played a gruelling 107 rugby games, as well as nine games of Victorian (Australian) Rules and two matches of…
The Lost Rugby Clubs of Leeds
What happened to a number of successful rugby clubs that operated in the Leeds area prior to World War Two? Most of these ‘lost’ clubs were formed in the ‘rugby…
Joseph Goodworth Hudson: Yorkshire’s premier organiser
Joseph Goodworth Hudson was amongst the pioneers of rugby within Yorkshire. In 1864, aged approx. 25, he replied to an advertisement in the Leeds newspapers asking for footballers to meet…
Arthur Edward Hudson: A Yorkshire Pioneer
Rugby in Yorkshire owes a great deal to the early endeavours of Arthur Edward Hudson. Born in Leeds in July 1854, Hudson was a pioneer in the early development of…
Missionary workers: Yorkshire Wanderers
Following the aftermath of the 1895 schism, the Yorkshire RFU were at low ebb. Membership of the union had declined from approx. 150 clubs to just into low double figures…
Hacking the Rose bush: The early ‘Roses’ games
The enmity between Yorkshire and Lancashire can be traced back to the ‘War of the Roses’ (1455-1487). The rivalry resumed in 1849 with the first First class cricket match between…